Sunday, 18 January 2009

Randy Burns is a minor figure on the Greenwich Village '60s folk scene, but his albums are largely enjoyable examples of post-Dylan psychedelic folk; the first three have the added collector value of being on the legendary New York indie ESP-Disk although they're not as interesting as, say, Pearls Before Swine.

Burns was born in Connecticut in 1948 and ran away from home at the age of 17. After the requisite period spent bumming around with a guitar on his back, the teenager ended up in New York City at the tail end of the folk boom of the early '60s, sleeping in Washington Square Park and busking for spare change. In early 1966, at the age of 18, he landed a regular gig as the permanent opening act at the legendary Gaslight Club on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. Shortly thereafter, Burns was approached by ESP-Disk founder and president Bernard Stollman, who invited the young folk singer to record for his label. Although Burns' style was far more "normal" than anyone else on the label (his cohorts included the Fugs and the Godz, plus the best of the city's free jazz scene), he dutifully recorded his first album, 1967's Of Love and War, a pleasant but fairly unremarkable folk album of the time with Burns' smooth voice accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and Emery Fletcher's occasional 12-string accents. Burns only plays three originals (all quite good), with the rest of the album consisting of scene standards by folks like Eric Anderson and David Blue, with a haunting version of Irene Paul's haunting 1940s anti-war ballad "Mr. War" the highlight.

Beautiful US '60's loner folk from one of ESP's more accessible artists. This is his debut album from 1967 and contains simple acoustic guitar and voice with some delicate flourishes intertwining around Randy's gentle vocal style.

Contains recording from 1971 of short-lived underground hardrock/psych/blues trio that featured John Goodsall on guitar, vocals (sounding like vintage Captain Beefheart!), and compositions, as well as Jim Mercer on bass and Gary Lonsdale on drums.

As the name of the group might imply, this is head music, and is really not anything like what Goodsall went on to do with Brand X. Three longish tracks unearthed from the vaults. This has become an instant collectible by virtue of the fact that only 350 copies were pressed.

Really, the only peers this recording has in the UK were some weirder EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND moments, the prog end of STACKWADDY, and perhaps that RUSTIC HINGE LP.

"Damon" : this is the artistic name of David Del Conte, a genius American gypsy musician who is responsible of probably the rarest and most sought-after psychedelic music album of all time, I mean "Song Of A Gypsy".

Following after the same haunting, hypnotic, modal melodies as Damon's original masterpiece, "Song of a Gypsy", the lyrics on "Gypsy Eyes" show a deeper truth and as life's journey reveals a deeper wisdom regarding love, and life itself.The original album, "Song of a Gypsy", represented the beginning of Damon's search for love and the meaning of life.The new album, "Gypsy Eyes", speaks of growth and a greater understanding of what has been learned over these past several years. The songs are about love; good times, and bad.

Tracks listing :

01. Gypsy Eyes (4:23)02. Hold On (5:14)03. You're Mine (5:38)04. Livin' in Limbo (4:20)05. Seems Like I Traveled (4:23)06. My Song of Love (4:56)07. Listen to the Voice (3:49)08. Tomorrow, Yesterday, Right Now (4:16)09. In the Quiet of the Evening (6:19)10. The Gift (5:29)